Press release archive

The Government has dropped plans for 42 days detention. Last night saw a resounding victory for Liberty's long running Charge or Release campaign. Common sense and common decency prevailed as the Government dropped plans to detain terror suspects for 42 days without charge, following an overwhelming defeat in the House of Lords. The Upper House rejected the proposal by a devastating 191 votes.

Forty-two leading writers will join Liberty in opposing Government plans to hold suspects for 42 days without charge. '42 Writers for Liberty' will showcase new works by leading writers including Philip Pullman, Monica Ali, Julian Barnes, Mohsin Hamid, Ian Rankin, Sadie Jones, Ali Smith and A.L. Kennedy.

Today Liberty called Government plans to extend pre-charge detention limits to 42 days an “international embarrassment” amid fresh criticism from the Council of Europe that the plans are “unduly complicated” and “not readily understandable.”

The Home Office’s anticipated announcement that ID cards will be compulsory for foreign nationals by November 2008 seeks to soften the public before making ID cards compulsory for all British nationals, Liberty warned.

The human rights group Liberty today urged the Government to make radical policy changes to protect the rights of child asylum seekers, after the Government pledged to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in full.

Tomorrow the Court of Appeal will consider if local authorities should retain sole responsibility for determining the age of unaccompanied child asylum seekers, after a 15-year-old Afghan refugee with learning difficulties was left homeless in London.

At a special hearing on Tuesday 26 August, Liberty will urge Plymouth City Council to ban the “Mosquito device,” which forces young people out of public areas by emitting a high-pitched squeal audible to under 25 year olds.